■ AUSTRALIA
Rudd rejects holiday call
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday rejected calls from Aboriginal rights activist Mick Dodson, named this year’s Australian of the Year on Sunday, for the national holiday to be moved out of respect for his people. National Day is celebrated on Jan. 26 to mark the arrival of white settlers in 1788. But Rudd refused to entertain the notion. “To our indigenous leaders and those who call for a change to our national day let me say a simple, respectful, but straightforward no,” said Rudd, speaking at an Australia Day function. “There have always been controversies about national days, but this is not the point. The central point is then what we resolve to fashion as a nation ... and whether the nation we fashion through our resolve, our energies and our efforts is a nation which includes all, not just some ... That is why I support this, our national day.”
■NEW ZEALAND
Old tuatara becomes dad
A captive reptile has unexpectedly become a father at the ripe old age of 111 after receiving treatment for a cancer that made him hostile toward prospective mates. The centenarian tuatara, named Henry, was thought well past the mating game until he was caught canoodling with a female named Mildred last March — a consummation that resulted in 11 babies being hatched yesterday. An endangered species, the hatchlings born at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery will provide a badly needed boost to the tuatara’s genetic diversity, said Lindsay Hazley, the tuatara curator.
■PAKISTAN
Bicycle bomb kills five
A bomb planted on a bicycle exploded near a women’s hostel in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan yesterday, killing five people and wounding several, police said. “It was a cycle bomb. Five people died on the spot while the wounded were shifted to hospitals,” police officer Bashir Khan said by telephone from the scene. Khan declined to say if the women’s hostel was the target. A hospital and a press club are also in the vicinity.
■INDONESIA
Muslims banned from yoga
Muslims in the country are now banned from practicing yoga that contains Hindu rituals like chanting, but will continue to be allowed to perform it for purely health reasons, the chairman of the country’s top Islamic body said yesterday. Cleric Maruf Amin said the Ulema Council issued the non-binding ruling following weekend talks attended by hundreds of theological experts in Padang Panjang, a village in West Sumatra province. Although the ruling is not legally binding, most devout Muslims are likely to adhere to it — as they consider it sinful to ignore a fatwa.
■CAMBODIA
Pact reached on border row
Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said yesterday he and visiting Thai Minister Kasit Piromya had agreed they must end a land dispute near an ancient temple, where troops from both nations clashed on Oct. 15, leaving four soldiers dead. “The demarcation of the border at Preah Vihear temple and discussions over troops is an urgent priority,” he told a joint press conference after the meeting. “Both sides — Cambodia and Thailand — agreed to set up a date from Feb. 2 to 4 in which the joint border commission will start to demarcate territory.” Thailand’s defense minister will visit Cambodia on Feb. 6 to discuss withdrawing troops from disputed territory around the 11th century Khmer temple, he said.
■UNITED STATES
Governor turns to media
Although Illinois lawmakers set to launch impeachment hearings against Governor Rod Blagojevich yesterday, Blagojevich has refused to appear before the Senate to defend himself against a host of abuse of power charges. Instead, he was trying to influence public opinion with TV appearances. The Democratic governor is refusing to take part in his own trial, arguing the rules are so biased that he can’t get a fair hearing. “You can conceivably bring in 15 angels and 20 saints led by Mother Teresa to come in to testify to my good character, to my integrity and all the rest. It wouldn’t matter,” he told the Today show in an interview scheduled to air yesterday. He was also to appear live on Good Morning, America, The View and Larry King Live.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Brown’s support slides: poll
Public support for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour government has plunged, according to a poll published yesterday that shows it trailing the main opposition Conservatives by 15 points. A ComRes survey for the Independent newspaper puts the Conservatives on 43 percent (up four points on last month), Labour on 28 percent (down six) and the third opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, unchanged on 16 percent. It is the first time Labour have fallen below 30 percent in any poll since September. ComRes telephoned 1,012 adults in Britain last Wednesday and Thursday.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Coffee, hallucinations linked
A study conducted on 200 university students has linked high caffeine consumption to a higher tendency to hallucinate. The study, carried out at Durham University and reported in a German magazine for physicians, asked students to outline the amount of coffee, tea, caffeine tablets and energy drinks they consumed. Their stress levels and tendency to hallucinate were then recorded. The study showed that students who drank more than seven cups of caffeine in instant coffee were three times more likely to hear voices than students with very low caffeine consumption.
■UNITED STATES
Police boy patrols Chicago
A 14-year-old aspiring police officer donned a uniform, walked into a Chicago police station and managed to get an assignment — patrolling in a squad car for five hours before he was detected, police said on Sunday. The boy did not have a gun, never issued any tickets and didn’t drive the squad car, Deputy Superintendent Daniel Dugan said. Assistant Superintendent James Jackson said the ruse was discovered only after the boy’s patrol with an actual officer ended on Saturday. Dugan said the boy looks older than 14 and was motivated by a desire to be an officer, not malice or “ill intent.”
■MEXICO
Cheesecake record set
The nation has long been known for tacos and tequila — but cheesecake? Chef Miguel Angel Quezada says 55 cooks spent 60 hours making the world’s biggest cheesecake — a 2-tonne calorie bomb topped with strawberries. The monster cake used nearly a tonne of cream cheese, the same amount of yogurt, 350kg of pastry, 250kg of sugar and 150kg of butter. Carlos Martinez of Guinness World Records declared the cheesecake the world’s largest on Sunday at an event sponsored by Kraft Foods, maker of Philadelphia cream cheese. There wasn’t much competition. Guinness had no previous record for cheesecakes. Organizers gave out 20,000 slices around Mexico City.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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